Do people still think we live in a free country when most days the dollar is getting so weak and prices climb?

Question

One of the main articles here on yahoo answers was oil goes to 115 as dollar weakens. Since we know they aren't really worth anything and just an illusion that everybody is being fooled by. Do you think that are standard of living is starting to decline with rising prices? Also because of that we live in a country with way more debt and thereby are losing a lot of our freedoms and prosperity?

http://finance.yahoo.com/

Answer 1

I do believe that freedom and wealth are connected. Are we really free if we can't do the things we want because of the limitations of money? ex. I have a job, so I have to work forty hours a week, this leaves little time to do the things I would rather be doing. A wealthy person by comparison (for this purpose let's take someone like Paris Hilton whom has family wealth) doesn't have to work, or is less tied down to their work, and can do things with their money I can't. Such as buy a nice house in the Rocky mountains. I think you get the idea.

Answer 2

Still the best country in the world ! I've lived, and traveled all over the world, for more than 40 years. There is no such thing as the "perfect" place.I'll bet, that if you made more than $ 200,000.00 per year, we wouldn't even be having this conversation .

Answer 3

Fiat money always inflates. That is the way it works. No way around it

Answer 4

No, we gave up the being a free country long ago when we abolished the gold standard and allowed the Federal Reserve to take charge in 1913.  Now, we are on the "paper money" system which the Fed can just print out. We're basically relying on the creation of money out of thin air, counterfeit.  The government gets as much money as it wants for whatever purposes whether it be for welfare, nation building, or anything else.  This leads to the devaluation of the dollar, due to more money being introduced into the economy.  And our standard of living has gone down we're paying more for goods and services than before. Of course, those who get to use the newly created credit first benefit.  They use it before any one of us do.  And by the time it trickles on down to the middle class, the money has already been devalued.  Leading to higher costs in living.  If the dollar devalues 10%, we have lost 10% of it's purchasing power.  Those who are saving and on fixed incomes, the middle class, and poor, find the prices going up and their wages staying the same.  This is why we are paying more now as compared to ten or twenty years ago.  The middle class today is hanging on by a thread.  And with the Fed manipulating the interest rates, which is something only the market can determine, it causes people to mal-invest.  When people borrow money and invest it into things they wouldn't under normal circumstances, it causes inflation due to more demand than supplies.  As a result, the things that were improperly invested in have to eventually be abadoned.  This leads to things like unemployment.  This is what is referred to as the "business cycle".  F A Hayek won the Nobel Prize proving this.  Matter of fact this is probably why the Fed doesn't publish the M-3 report anymore that tells how much money is in the ecomony.  And as long as this keeps happening, there will always be certain people who benifit from it and those who don't causing loss of freedom and prosperity.  

Answer 5

No the dollar rises an falls...it's nothing new really just economics.  

Answer 6

Please name just one Freedom you have lost, so the rest of us can understand your plight

Answer 7

freedom and wealth do not necessarily have anything to do with each other; anxiety over wealth usually diminishes freedom

Answer 8

Indication that you live in a free country is that you are free to leave. Seriously, one of the great freedoms we have if you don't like it a person can go try someplace else. Right now there are several million North Koreans that would love to get out of there.

Answer 9

Freedom and wealth are not exactly the same thing.  Many of us would willingly face poverty if we could maintain our freedom to vote for our government and to make our own choices in life and to speak our own minds.  

Saudi Arabia is a very wealthy country, but I would not want to be a Saudi woman, or even a Saudi man.  There's too little freedom there to suit me.